Author Archive: My Kitchen Wand

It has been suggested that finding a clump of rhubarb in a witches garden was a common occurrence as using a stock to “stir the pot” was said to amplify the energies of what was being prepared. This week when I finished making Rhubarb Lemon Syrup, I remembered a sheet of puff pastry in the […]

On the west coast of British Columbia, I wait for the first rhubarb of the year. It is usually here by Beltane and I am so happy to be able to make anything with rhubarb. This year has been colder than normal and things are a little bit behind. I was thrilled when the local […]

May Baskets are a tradition that has gone through many changes. For the last 200 hundred years, much of the focus has been on children or sweethearts. In some places the custom was to knock on the door, yell “May basket!,” and then run. If the giver was caught by the recipient, he or she […]

Onions soup! You will need: 1 1/2 pounds onions, peeled, sliced, and cut into quarter-moons 2 Tbsp. fat (more below) salt black pepper, freshly ground if possible to taste 1 – 1/2 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar 5 cups beef broth 1 -1 1/2 Tbsp. sherry or brandy, optional but recommended croutons to cover each bowl or […]

This lovely loaf comes with the delicious flavour of marzipan but without actual marzipan. I think it is a perfect Beltane offering as sweets and cake are sacred foods for Beltane and will also work well for Mother’s Day. Ellen Evert Hopman in A Druid’s Herbal writes that almonds and roses, the essential flavours in […]

Around 1912, my grandfather was a preteen part-time helper with the local bakery in Heacham. England. He left to come to Canada in 1914, so I say around. One of his jobs was assistance with the making of pound cake. The bakery made plain and almond varieties. As he told the story,  the only difference […]

Potato, leek & chicken mean spring and Irish to me, so if you are looking for something for dinner this Ostara season or any time really, this works in our house, especially when there is leftover mashed potatoes and cooked chicken in the kitchen. Leeks are first mentioned in Egypt as a method of barter […]

With so much coastline in the United Kingdom, it is not surprising that, historically, fish would have been such a big part of the local diet. Joanne Asala in Celtic Folklore Cooking, shares a whole chapter of “Fish, Shellfish and Seaweed”, highlighting salmon as a sacred food for this time on the wheel of the […]

During March, my Celtic roots seem to talk to me more fervently so even though I used Canadian whiskey in this recipe, I was thinking Irish or Scotch. Not being much of a drinker and definitely not a lover of beer, green or otherwise, I was looking for an alternate way to recognize March 17th. […]

March is celebrated as Craft month so I opted to try something new for me, that I wanted connected to spring. The idea was simple but then things got complex. Ultimately, I was looking for the pastels of Ostara and Easter but I had seen a really simple idea using toilet paper rolls. The problem […]